When the Great Spirit made the earth
and put the water in the deep valleys
to form lakes, and built the springs
in the mountains to form streams
and rivers, he did not give to the water the power
to show within its surface his children's faces
or to make the trees appear to grow with their
branches pointing deep into the ground. For many
thousands of summers the younger sister of the
sun was never seen far down in the bosom of the
lake at night, and many times young men grew old
and died before the sun could see himself in the
river, the warriors could put on their war-paint by
the deep pool in the woods, or the maidens plait
their braids with their smiling faces reflected from
the laughing stream that flowed beside the
wigwams.

The red men lived together peacefully and happily then beside a great river. One day the young
hunters came home in haste from the chase and reported the coming of many strange people from
beyond the river. They said the strange men carried bows twice the height of the tallest chief
known in the peaceful tribes, or held in their hands
branches of trees to which were attached sharpened
stones of great size. The chiefs and wise men assembled, and scouts and runners were sent forth to
see if the young hunters had not been deceived by
the evil spirits of the woods. But the young
hunters had not looked with double eyes, and the
strange warriors were as many as the pebbles on
the bank of the river. The hearts of the red men
were filled with fear, for they knew not then
how to fight against such numbers, and the
sachems arose from the council-fire and went forth
to the cave in the rocks where the Great Spirit
talked with them. The Great Spirit told his children that he would care for them and protect them
from the strange warriors, and he told the people to
fear not, but to obey the three fathers and firekeepers of the nation. When the night came the
fathers told the men and women to build many
fires on the shore of the river, and when the fires
were built the red men were filled with fear to see
burning, deep down in the water, a fire for each
fire on the shore.

The strange warriors also saw these fires in the
water, and they were frightened and dared not cross
the river in the night to destroy them. But with the
morning the strange warriors once more took courage and plunged into the river to swim to the shore
where the children of the Great Spirit dwelt. Then
the Great Spirit loosed the spirits of the storm and
they rushed down the mountain and out upon the
river, and when he called them back the strange
warriors were not to be seen. Then the red men
went forth in their canoes and the water of the
river was clear and white. They looked down and
saw first their own faces and above them the smiling face of the Great Spirit; and then, down deep
in the water, they saw the bodies of the strange
men who had come to destroy them.

The water never changed again, for the Great
Spirit saw it gave his children pleasure, and he
loved his children then.